Chilly Willy Drag Racing Blog

Hope  this season is good for all,  I thank everyone for looking around here, and here`s whats happening for the Willys, theyre hibernating, oh, the one on the ground is the original car soon to be torn appart to restore it to its glory days build. I know its so nice but its gotta be done.  I will have a real nice driving chassis and a steel custom willys floor to match for sale.  And as a christmas bonus for you all, theres  two pages of pics and short stories of the cars. Maybe something you didnt know.

Nice Job Rick.....

I wanted to show all of you who check out my blog and thankyou for doing so, as  I try to keep the site as updated as possible, but when the racing season goes cold, I have to become creative in another way to burn up some of the energy. Surfing on the web I came across Krazy Ricks Chilly Willy Gasser.  I opened up the site and low and behold was  a gallery of pictures from all sides  of the car with the 1967  green and yellow combo  war paint. I had to look at it closer, something seemed funny  and I realized it was a model.   Holy smokes!!!!! Is this ever neat.You never know whats out there until you look. He stated in his posting that we met at one of the local tracks and that he sifted thru my collection of pictures that I display and loved the paint scheme so much that he recreated a model of it. Well some of you may not know, this is the way the car looked   before the  blue paint job that we currently run.  Rick has done an amazing  job of  just that. This was Berts first year with the Willys and it had a junk yard engine for power. The purchase price of the car was $1200.00 and his wife ended up buying it  for his birthday. What a lovely gal.  Burt said he found the original sales slip the other day when he was looking through some stuff.  Anyway, the car never went  as fast as he would have liked it to, but Straus was able to keep the car very consistant and new he could win some races. Wasnt till the next year that he bought another engine which had much more power  from a well know altered called “Percy Also”  who changed his engine to a Hemi.  Heres the link to Ricks forum posting. Check it out and also another new page  I have added in the pages section to show off your hard works called “Model Builders Corner”      ………Dyno   http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t13813.html

Time to read and enjoy about other peoples cars. Dont be shy and send me your info with a few pictures and you will get posted. Click it in “Pages” open and enjoy…Dyno….

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Go Back In The Day

The famous and beautiful Milan dragway outside of Detroit Mighigan will be hosting the first ever nostalgia show and shine event on Sept 26. This one day event arleady has a large booking and should be quite the show. We are counting down the days till we get there. The Can/Am Gassers will be in full swing with a larger than nornal American gasser turn out. Deric Knowe on the Candian side who runs the “Hyper Henry” said to me earlier “We gonna have to work real hard to take them out. Theyre good racers you know.” Ya I know Deric, they beat us last event. So stay tuned and see what happens. Have you seen the latest video on the Chilly Willys in Lancaster New York? Its on YouTube courtesy of Frank Kunkel and it was a wonderful ride.  By the way its on my video page too. Enjoy  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4EFEGHbUM   Dyno

Imagine seeing this on the street

Last weekend we hit the Bend for one day of racing. The stars of the OSCA realy let it all hang out. Nice weather, dedicated and efficient staff members, awsome strip, clean grounds and fast cars  made it another event to plan for next year. Special thanks to Mike Bennet and Rob Barnes of the OSCA for the invitation and treating us   ”Candian Gassers” very nicely despite theyre buisy day. Many thanks.   We ran the car twice in the 1/4  mile and went 9.86/ 128 mph first pass,  (9.68/ 139 mph second pass  setting another personal record.)  P.S. dont tell the competition……Dyno

 The racing was a complete succes last weekend and all cars made the rounds making it one of the best organized races ive ever been in.  The heat was brutal for the 3 days. The sun poured down on the tack and it was tricky to get a good hard launch. The stick cars spun out of the hole slightly and some got into trouble  grabbing  second gear which made crew chiefs scramble for tire adjustments. The fans got to see  the qualifying and eliminations all happen in a  sweet short  time. We hot lapped the cars in 45 minute intervals, only to return  after our pass with time to refuel, check tires and put a cool drink down to cool off and  then “YOUR UP AGAIN” was heard. Dave Mathers, owner of St.Thomas dragway had a rock and roll beat happening.  This small show was very well organized and was a great success.  Chilly Willys ended up being 2nd fastest qualifier with a 6.19 ET in the 1/8 mile  and had to race the #1 qualifier with his 6.11  ET. What luck!  I took him out of the hole but spun 2nd and he drove away. The big Rossitter horsepower in our car didnt have enough time to catch him and lost. We went out with our heads high. We lost to the champion Ed Wisely in his 34 Ford who was on Team USA.  There are those who put out for this race and need to be thanked. Special thanks to all the Team USA members  who drove the miles and are truely wonderful people, Nelson Bilyk for organizing this event, and whom I  recieved fuel money to help cover some of the  costs. Dave, Linda, Paul and Jen Mathers for having the faith in these racers  to put on the best damn gasser show since the seveties. My crew Ed Vastokas and Lee Pinylo who sweated it out. If you missed it, you missed it. Up above are some of the ones that didnt

The Chilly Willys will be racing this  weekend  at St. Thomas dragway on Sat Aug 15 for one day only as the Can/Am Gassers Match Up will  showcase   with the Big Rigs in their “Truck Nationals” on their 3 day event..  www.stthomasdragway.com  This is a charity event fund raiser for the local hospital and the weekend weather looks hot and sunny. The gassers will be running on the track early afternoon qualifying, and going into the evening with the show down in eliminations. The line consists of 4 Americans and 5 Canadians. Tim Timosyzk of the Great Lakes Gasser Club says he has the 4 American cars that are planning to KICK SOME BUT…. Nelson Bilyks reply “Guess what Tim,  In your dreams.  We have 5 Canadian cars waiting.” Nelson is responsible for forming this racing series and campains his realy bad (Gone Beserk) HEMI Willys.  This track has been in existence since 1962 and has been a major promoter of Nostalgic racing events in Southern Ontario. We expect these events to grow into full fledged Gasser Wars. Hope to see you there….Dyno Dan

Bob gets the quick shot

Well, the car keeps on getting faster and the spark plugs say no ones home yet. First pass at the track  on Friday was fast and hard with a 6.16 ET beating our Thompson Ohio pass in June with the 6.20 ET. We were all happy because the furnace is starting to warm up.  We then ran again the next day and had a big wheelie in second gear and unloaded the chassis on the wheelie bars which  moved the car out of the groove and pushed me over to the wall at about 80 mph and I thought I hit it. It was so close. I can laugh about it now,. but its taken me a couple days to forget the scare. After an incident like that you shake for a bit. We couldn’t close the day off without trying to settle the car down for the next run. We did a shock adjustment and pumped the tire up one more pound  to 16, believe it or not and WHAMO.  That car left like a bullet and ran a 6.08/114 MPH.  Still did the big air in first gear, second gear popped the nose up and the wheelie bars just kissed the track and rode straight out with a long gentle wheelie. What a feeling. Shifting third, then fourth gear to get  the job done are the last little breaths you take under tension. Then its all over and you slow down and then get your report card.(time ticket)  I know in that pass the engine revved over 8000 while power shifting. We just did a valve lash check and everything is perfect. I think we are going to put the camera in the car next time we go down the track and show you what its like. Im also trying to get  a video of the near crash from someone who recorded it at the show and post it.  Here are some pics from the event taken by my friend Bob Wenzelburger,  P.S. if anyone has any pics or videos  to offer, im always interested, thanks and enjoy… Dyno

WHR 2009

Always smiling.

We love Chilly Willys.

Bill with his Chilly Willys shirt on

Smilin and profilin

I got free beer cause I had my Chilly Willys shirt on

Its hot outside but cool here.

The Johnson family that owned Niagra Drag Strip.

Yeah, I love this car.

Fans crowd the barriers to get a glimpse.

There were so many  people walking around, lots of smiling faces and here are some of them. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello.We enjoyed your company. Oh and if you were wondering how the car went, that will be the next post.   Thanks, Dyno

Thanks for the calendar.